A Russian Porcelain Plate from a Military Service, Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg, Period of Nicholas I (1825-1855), dated 1843

the cavetto depicting two officers from an Artillery Training Brigade with two young Cantonists, a third officer stands next to a cannon in the background; the border decorated with matt and burnished gilded double-headed eagles in the form of the Imperial State coat-of-arms perched on a peltarion and beneath a ribbon inscribed "For Excellence" alternating with a shako with crossed rifle and saber against a laurel branch, all against a deep green ground.

Sotheby's London, December 15, 1995, lot 464, illustrated

Overall good condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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This remarkable plate is particularly interesting for its rare depiction of members of Cantonist battalions, whose formation Emperor Nicholas I had decreed in 1827, the same year he had commissioned this series of military plates. In that year, service in the Russian Imperial military was made compulsory for Jews; an annual conscription quota was legislated with the age for the draft being established as between 12 and 25 years. The 1827 statute also provided that "Jewish minors under 18 years of age shall be placed in preparatory training establishments for military training," i.e., the Cantonist battalions for six years. After completion of rudimentary education, the boys then served the required term of twenty-five years in the Army or Navy. Nicholas viewed the program as an effective means by which to assimilate and Russify Jewish children (as well as other minority groups such as Polish and Ukrainian Catholics); children from areas in the Pale of Settlement were sent to large cities in the East with little or no existing Jewish communities, barred from speaking Hebrew, and strongly encouraged to convert to Orthodoxy. The boys depicted here are shown with the Russian officers responsible for their education and care. On the Cantonist battalions, see Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, Jews in the Russian Army, 1827-1917: Drafted into Modernity, Cambridge, 2008, pp. 90-128.